WILMINGTON — As part of the “Clean Up Clinton County” initiative, officials anticipate seven new demolition projects in Clinton County by the end of March.
Those seven properties are located in Wilmington, Union Township, the villages of Midland and Port William, and Wayne Township.
On the foreclosure front, officials have filed three foreclosures on seven parcels that are tax delinquent and blighted in the past two months, said Clinton County Assistant Prosecutor Justin Dickman.
On one of those parcels sits a burned-out structure on A Street in Wilmington. Two of the parcels are along Thorne Avenue in Wilmington; and the remaining four parcels are off Nance Road in Wayne Township.
Another recently filed foreclosure case is against an individual who holds six parcels that span Martinsville, Union Township and Richland Township.
At least eight other parcels are in the queue for foreclosure filings in the next month, according to Dickman.
Meanwhile, the Clinton County Land Bank, in collaboration with the Clinton County Prosecutor’s Office, obtained two properties through a deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure. Those acquisitions are located on the 100 block of South Broadway Street in Midland and on Westboro Road in Jefferson Township.
The Land Bank also acquired 270 Bernard Street in New Vienna plus two parcels on the 500 block of West Vine Street in Wilmington.
Dickman said there is a Medicaid lien on the Bernard Street property in New Vienna, with the Ohio Attorney General’s Medicaid Division collaborating in the real estate transfer process.
“It’s a beautiful brick house, it’s just rundown. That’s one of the properties that we can save as opposed to demolish,” Dickman remarked to county commissioners in an appointment this week.
The structure on West Vine Street in Wilmington, on the other hand, will be coming down. But before it does get leveled, law enforcement officers and firefighters will hold training activities there, said Dickman.
The Prosecutor’s Office anticipates, Dickman said, the transfers of two Lumberton-area properties to the Land Bank in the next few weeks.
He reported that a list of available Land Bank properties are now posted on the Land Bank’s website at clintoncountylandbank.com . To access the list which includes photographs and the time frame when availability starts, click on “Properties” at the top of the home page.
Dickman also spoke briefly about sheriff’s sale auctions. He mentioned three properties slated for auction at a March 12 sheriff sale in the Clinton County Courthouse: one on U.S. Route 68, one on Woodview Drive in Wilmington, and one on South Broadway Street in Midland.
He explained that the reason why properties will go to a sheriff’s sale is because those are occupied.
“And while we don’t want to kick people out of their houses, I think that it’s important to be serious,” said Dickman.
He went on to say Clinton County Prosecuting Attorney Andrew McCoy is very serious about the matter.
Dickman elaborated that people are required to pay their taxes and to comply with local zoning, “and if you don’t do that we’re going to move forward and your properties are going to go up for a sheriff’s sale.”
In pursuing zoning violation complaints, the Prosecutor’s Office has worked with the Clinton County Building & Zoning Department to prioritize properties, he said. Several owners of blighted properties who received warning letters have begun cleaning those properties, said Dickman.
A pending blighted property case is currently in default on the 900 block of Shull Road. Several other zoning complaints are in the process of the 30-day review by the Building & Zoning Department.
In working on the “Clean Up Clinton County” initiative, the Prosecutor’s Office conducts preliminary and final title searches and updates on properties. Dickman said it’s great that the Clinton County Recorder’s Office has begun to digitize back to 1964.
Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.
